2005-01-20 - 12:52 a.m.

1999—James Gomez of the Think Centre publishes ‘Self-Censorship: Singapore’s Shame’. It’s a pretty podium-pounding indictment of how censorship has been internalized and normalized by the citizenry. Chua Lee Hoong, one of the Straits Times’ most prominent poitical columnists, once replied to a question on what she felt about being a former Internal Security Department ‘analyst’ with the unforgettable words: “I’m not ashamed”.

Somehere in the SDU database, under the 'Perfect Match' section...

1999—‘sex.violence.blood.gore’, by The Necessary Stage, receives 3 cuts to the script for being ‘racially/religiously inflammatory’. Decision by PELU is delivered one day before the play opens. The play is eventually performed and the censored portions photocopied and distributed to audience members. A copy of the letter from PELU was read out in the middle of the performance in a matter-of-fact tone: unsexy, bloodless, not gory, but with the full understated violence of a frog-boiling, testicle-taming nanny state.

Spank us! Spank us! How naughty we are!

1999—Movie title ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’ is changed to ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shioked Me’; this decision ultimately overturned in favour of original title. Censors achieved two things: they highlighted Singaporeans to the meaning of ‘shag’, and also stained for good the meaning of the vernacular ‘shiok’.

Look! It's Dr Evil and Mini-Me! It's...uhm...

1998—Francis Seow, political exile, publishes ‘The Media Enthralled—Singapore Revisited.’ On the one hand, it’s easy to dismiss the book as ‘Chip-On-The-Shoulder Literature.’ On the other, this book shows why so many of us instantly laughed when Business Times journalist Catherine Ong, threatened with a defamation suit by tycoon Oei Hong Leong in 2004 said, “I believe in freedom of speech”.

Imagine PAP looking into a mirror and seeing Francis Seow. And the immortal dialogue: "You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? Huh? Ok."

1998—Amendment is made to 1981 Films Act with an introduction of the Political Videos Act, approved overwhelmingly in Parliament. In part, the vague and sweeping legislation defines a party political film as one "made by any person and directed toward any political end in Singapore" or one that contains "partisan or biased references on any political matter." Should you start getting rid of your stash of National Day Parade VHS tapes already?

Big-budget Political Video Blockbuster. Cast of thousands, SAF stagehands. But at the end of the day only got one actor lah, the all just extras. The video screen at the back carries a headline that reads: 'SARS Crisis Shows Singaporeans Are Resilient'. When you have a newspaper like The Straits Times, all you need for your next propaganda spectacle is to lift headlines directly.

1998—Hong Kong artist Zunzi Wang’s artwork, a political cartoon featuring caricatures of then-SM Lee and PM Goh, is removed by officials from the Singapore Art Museum and destroyed just prior to the opening of ARX5. The artist is not informed until the opening. Some have defended the museum’s actions as a ‘curatorial failure’, instead of an ‘instance of censorship’. Anyone’s got a thesaurus?

One of Zunzi's political cartoons. You invite a political cartoonist to exhbit, and then you want him to do what? Calligraphy?

1997—Singapore Broadcasting Authority issues Internet Code of Practice. SBA does not realise that ‘Internet Regulation’ happens to be an oxymoron.

The little red dot represesents Singapore. The slash across refers to the efficient censor's signature. The streak of red on the right hand side tells us what we all know: at the back it's all red tape.

1997—I-S magazine’s license is not renewed by MITA. MITA statement reads: ‘I-S Magazine has flouted [our] guidelines by publishing items which are objectionable, for example, phone lines offering phone sex, ads which are lewd, and ads which promote unacceptable lifestyles such as homosexuality’. A scan through back issues of I-S magazine fails to show up advertisements exhorting the population to explore the pleasures of same-sex sweet-lovin’.

One of the pleasures of reading I-S magazine--in addition to their OB markers chart--is Matt Groening's Life in Hell. He says all there is to say on the matter.

1995—American Academic Dr Christopher Lingle’s article in International Herald Tribune, ‘Smoke over Parts of Asia Obscures Some Profound Concerns,’ incurs government wrath; SM Lee files a civil libel suit. IHT pays S$213,000 in damages plus costs for the civil suit. Lingle is separately ordered by the courts in April to pay S$71,000 in damages, plus costs, to the Senior Minister. Lingle’s crime? Stating that an unnamed country uses a ‘compliant judiciary to bankrupt opposition politicians’. Only opposition politicians? Hmmm.

In every foreign lecturer/journalist there lurks the 'meddler in internal affairs'. From Uni Prof DJ Enright who was called a 'beatnik mendicant professor' to most recently TODAY journalist Michael Backman who was told that he had 'crossed the line' when he questioned repressive Press laws, we've had a long tradition of saying 'White Man go home'. Unless they're right-wing Americans.

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